


safe and sound

by azumarheart



Series: The Aftermath [1]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Canon Compliant, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Gen, Good Parent Jim "Chief" Hopper, Good Parent Joyce Byers, Hurt Eleven | Jane Hopper, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Joyce comforts Eleven, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-18
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2020-10-21 05:17:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20688134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/azumarheart/pseuds/azumarheart
Summary: Joyce has felt hyper focused on keeping Will safe and alive the past two years. But in this moment, staring into El’s eyes, she knows she needs to shift her attention. El needs it.aka the missing scene where Joyce comforts El after The Battle of Stacourt





	safe and sound

**Author's Note:**

> Hi friends, I’m back with another fic! I’m really just busting these out nowadays which makes me happy! I’ve missed writing. 
> 
> Stranger Things 3 wrecked me emotionally and I’ve been dreaming of this scene since I watched it. I was so disappointed when it didn’t actually exist, so I made it real!! 
> 
> Title is from ‘safe and sound’ by taylor swift 
> 
> Hope you all enjoy and please comment if you do!

Joyce feels like her head has been pumped full of helium. Her ears are ringing. The shock of watching Hopper disappear right before her eyes was too much. The loss too painful.

She doesn’t quite remember emerging from the Russian bunker. She thinks Murray pulled her away from danger, and she vaguely remembers bits and pieces of US soldiers marching them back to the elevator.

It’s a long ride up, and her stomach drops both from the lurch of the elevator, and from the dread of reality. 

When she steps out on solid ground, and breathes fresh air, everything seems more clear. Her focus aims directly on finding the kids and making sure they are safe. Making sure the Mind Flayer didn’t get them. 

Making sure Will is still with them.

That’s really been her sole focus the past 2 years. But after these events, the ones where death is so close by and Will is so close to danger? That focus consumes her completely. 

The need to find him and to make sure he’s safe yanks her across the pavement towards the busiest area. There are helicopters and sirens and flashing lights and it’s starting to drizzle. Joyce pays none of it attention, storming along in her too big Russian uniform, eyes scanning. 

When she sees Will, standing whole and alive, an uncontrollable sob of relief escapes her. He spots her too, wide puppy-dog eyes seeking her out, and he’s suddenly running in her direction.

Will is long-limbed and he’s losing his baby face, but he looks so young in that moment. 

He collides with her, gripping on in a way that reminds Joyce of how she held those Christmas lights so tightly back when he was missing. Desperation fueled into a white knuckled grip. They’re both crying, and Will almost sounds like he’s laughing too, relieving the anxious breath he’d been holding for god knows how long. 

He’s safe and she’s here for him and it’s okay. 

It’s only once Joyce settles into the embrace, with the knowledge that Will is safe, does she look towards the rest of the kids. She counts them all off, and is relieved to see them all present. Jonathan sits in the back of an ambulance, keeping an eye on Nancy as she drags Mike into a hug not unlike the one Joyce is in currently. Dustin is deep in discussion with Lucas’s little sister, and they both seem to be in slightly upbeat moods. Steve sits with an icepack to his face, covering what seems to be yet another black eye. His coworker Robin is splayed out like a starfish beside him, talking while staring up at the sky. She apparently makes a deadpan joke, causing Steve to laugh, and they share a fond and knowing look between them. 

Max sits in the back of an ambulance, tears streaming down her cheeks, with a deep thousand yard stare taken over her expression. Lucas has one of her hands gripped tightly with his, and he sits like silent sentinel as she processes whatever she’s seen. Joyce wonders if it has to do with Billy. She doesn’t see him anywhere.

Last, but never least, her eyes meet with the one person closest to her. Joyce is surprised that she wasn’t the first person she saw.

El stands a few feet away, anxiety etched in every line of her body, as she looks searchingly around Joyce. Her eyes are wide and hopeful, and Joyce feels her insides collapse. 

She didn’t think about El. She didn’t think about how Hopper wasn’t just leaving Joyce behind, he was leaving El. His daughter. An orphan once again, her support system ripped away. 

No one else to protect her. 

The sadness and horror must show on Joyce’s face, because El’s own face starts to crumple. It doesn’t even take words to confirm what she’s thinking. Worst case scenario. El looks for a moment like she’s in denial, before the realization that Hopper is still not here takes over. The look of pure pain, absolute devastation on El’s face rocks Joyce to her core. 

No child should have to feel that pain. 

Especially not alone.

Joyce pulls away from Will, and she thinks she whispers something to him, but she can’t be sure. Her focus has become tunneled again, and all she can think about is reaching El. 

She walks over to El: watching as the young girl’s eyes overflow with tears, and listening as she starts to wail. It’s the loudest sound she’s heard from El besides her screaming in battle, and it sends chills to her bones. 

Joyce reaches El, and embraces her tightly, in a mother’s hold. She cradles El’s head and guides her face towards the area between her shoulder and neck. Joyce wraps her arms around the girl’s shoulders. El latches on around her waist, and she’s sobbing into Joyce’s shirt. Her legs go limp, so Joyce lowers the both of them slowly to the ground. 

Their position essentially stays the same, but El is able to curl herself tighter towards Joyce. Joyce, tears falling and sobs wrenched from her chest as well, rocks the both of them side to side. She thinks about how El probably never got this motherly affection, how she’s never been held like this when she’s upset. It breaks her further, and she runs her fingers through El’s hair, whispering condolences and soft words like ‘it’s okay sweetheart, you’re okay’. 

Joyce needs El to have this comfort, to feel cared for, to be a child, at least for this moment. Because there’s no one left to do this for her. 

She doesn’t know what the future will hold. What will happen in the aftermath of this battle, of the Russians and the monsters and the death. Doesn’t know what these kids have experienced this time around, if it’s finally over, or how it will effect them moving forwards.

But she does know that she won’t be letting go of this little girl. Joyce will die before leaving El alone. With her grief. With her loss. With her bright smiles and curious eyes. With her strength and love that roped Hopper in, along with all the kids surrounding her. 

She’s reminded of that moment they shared, when Will was lost, and El needed to float in the swimming pool of salt in order to find him. How she promised to keep El safe, and gave her a way out. How El, fearful and whimpering, calmed at the comforting words Joyce spoke. How she pulled El out of the water, and the girl clung to her, a frail, drenched thing. 

Joyce will protect El, as if she were her own daughter. No matter the circumstances. She’s felt that maternal instinct since the first day she met her. She’ll take El in, not just because Hopper has gone, but because she cares for this child. Because she’s always loved El. 

But for now, she holds the crying girl, a quiet beacon of stability in the chaos around them.

**Author's Note:**

> I needed Joyce to hug El and she didn’t and I cried lol! Joyce really loves El like a daughter. If you rewatch their scene together in Season 1 it’s so sweet and motherly and Joyce is so kind to and protective of this strange little girl she just met who holds her son’s fate in her hands. 
> 
> Wow big ramble there lol
> 
> Do you guys like stranger things? Do you want me to write more? Lemme kno!


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